Truth in Teaching

Education reform will go nowhere until the states are forced to revamp corrupt teacher evaluation systems that rate a vast majority of teachers as “excellent,” even in schools where children learn nothing. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was right to require the states that participate in the school stabilization fund, which is part of the federal education stimulus program, to show — finally — how student achievement is weighted in teacher evaluations. The states have long resisted such accountability, and Mr. Duncan will need to press them hard to ensure they live up to their commitment.

A startling new report from a nonpartisan New York research group known as The New Teacher Project lays out the scope of the problem. The study, titled “The Widget Effect,” is based on surveys of more than 16,000 teachers and administrators in four states: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio.

The first problem it identifies is that evaluation sessions are often short, infrequent and pro forma — typically two or fewer classroom observations totaling 60 minutes or less. The administrators who perform them are rarely trained to do the evaluations and are under intense pressure from colleagues not to be critical. Not surprisingly, nearly every teacher passes, and an overwhelming majority receives top ratings.

At the same time, more than 80 percent of administrators and nearly 60 percent of teachers surveyed said that they knew a tenured teacher who deserved to be dismissed for poor performance. Half of 12 districts studied had not dismissed a tenured teacher in the previous five years. The study also says that teachers who need and want to improve their skills find it very hard to get help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/opinion/10wed4.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1244649683-nv0LTFMZZ5n7puocaXnDQg

I entirely agree that I shouldn't keep my job if I'm lousy at it. You'll pardon me, though, if I'm not willing to be judged by tests that consistently fail to do their job.

I also don't want to be judged based on the performance of students, many of whom regard standardized tests as opportunities to absent-mindedly color in random circles. As for assessments that evaluate students based on their written responses -- the problematic humanly-scored ones -- writing things down is even less popular than thinking about which circles to color in.

Besides, which students do you propose to judge me by? The ones distracted by family crises, the ones on drugs, the ones who just don’t care, the ones having a bad day, or the ones I've never taught who moved in a few months or weeks before the tests. If you think there's an accurate way to track which mobile students are whose, guess again.

You can't hold someone accountable for things he can’t control. Judging my performance as a teacher based on my students' performance is as flawed as judging my doctor based on my lab tests. If my genes are bad, or I won't eat right or exercise, it's not his fault. Don't misunderstand. I expect to be judged. That's supposed to be my employer's job. It’s true that teachers have a little more job protection than most workers. I've known a number of teachers who otherwise would've lost their jobs because they offended the wrong bureaucrat or gave the wrong litigious parent's offspring a C or a detention.

http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-15-09.htm

... judging my doctor based on my lab tests." Your words are EXCELLENT. Thank you for posting. I hope you'll consider posting your thoughts in GD and HERE:



http://www.edgovblogs.org/duncan/2009/05/secretary-arne-duncan-takes-listening-tour-online-invites-comments-on-raising-standards/




(Arne's blog)

...better trained administrators. It is a 'jumping on the bandwagon' style OpEd that continues the delusion that teachers are the problem, when that isn't true.

In 2001, under the Bush Administration’s Education Secretary, Rod Paige, teachers (unions, specifically) were called terrorist organizations. For the last eight years, NCLB has done nothing but blame public school problems on ineffective teachers (probably because they prefer vouchers). There has been almost NO recognition for eight years of the job teachers do. The general public has NO IDEA what the job entails and our leaders have worked to make that WORSE for eight years. Now, it seems, the effort is to use data unfairly to document the delusion.

Rather than continuing the fantasy that 'if we better evaluate and quantify what a teacher does we'll be able to get rid of the bad ones and our schools will get better', a better start would be a HUGE and LOUD apology to the teachers of this nation who have dedicated their lives to teaching kids... most with little support, either financial or in respect.

Most teachers I know expect and have no problem with fair evaluation. If the past system needs reform, then we SHOULD make it better. But, unfortunately, it is not teachers who have the power to make evaluation fair. Right now it is politicians...most of whom know little about teaching in a classroom. They must not know that judging a teacher by a student test score is inherently unfair. There are too many variables out of a teacher's control to do that.

This is a problem in need of a solution. But it is time for politicians to stop this game and publicly apologize to teachers for scapegoating them in recent years. Should we work together to make evaluations better? Absolutely! Should we work together to get rid of the FEW bad teachers that tarnish the reputation of the majority? The sooner the better. Should we work together to finally fix public schools for the 21st century? Sign me up.

But let's be honest. Truth in Teaching? It has yet to be heard in the public discourse. It is long past time we had a discussion about what is truly wrong in our schools. The simple answer (the one that is usually wrong) is not teachers. It is very multi-faceted and will require honesty from ALL stakeholders.

ALL of them, including teachers.

...as a LTTE to the NY Times. I hope you will do the same with your post. ;)

Do it Arne's way? No FUCKING way.

First of all, he is not an educator, and not qualified to decide how teachers are evaluated, having never done the job himself. It's too bad Obama couldn't find a single educator among the many stellar he had to choose from to appoint as Secretary.

Secondly, what is fucking CORRUPT is the use of stimulus dollars that are supposed to provide jobs, to STIMULATE THE DEPRESSED ECONOMY, to bully states and districts into doing things his way.

You want better teacher evaluations? There are good ideas out there.

I once, in my 25 years of teaching, worked for an administrator that bucked the system. He could do so, because we, as a "pilot school," were allowed site-level flexibility in everything we did. He did not do one or two 30 minute observations of a pre-planned and performed lesson, and then write up his observations. He dropped in, unannounced, several times during the year, at different times during the day, and observed actual day to day practice, took notes, and met with us after each to ask questions. Then he wrote a final report at the end of the year.

That was pretty effective, both at honestly evaluating what teachers were actually doing, and encouraging professional improvement on the part of teachers. BTW, this particular admin WAS an educator, having done 12 years in the classroom before moving on to administration. He was more qualified to evaluate what he was seeing than anyone who has never done the job could be.

This is one of the reasons I am adamantly opposed to the "charter school" push. It creates two tiers of education funded with public money. One that is allowed the flexibility to meet needs, and one that is forceably standardized into mediocrity or failure. THAT is CORRUPT. We don't need charter schools; all of our districts and schools need the flexibility and freedoms that charter schools operate under, with a small core of regulation to ensure equal opportunity to all.

You want better ways to evaluate teachers? Take a look at Charlotte Danielson's work; she's got a great system. Not that I think Arne will be interested; he's a privatizer, a union-buster, and a corporate stooge, to use one Chicago educator's words. Here's Danielson:

http://www.danielsongroup.org/coaching.htm

Regardless, it is utterly CORRUPT to evaluate a teacher based on what a student does. Teachers don't control everything that affects student performance. Evaluate us on what WE do, not on what others do.

So short, infrequent observations are not enough to determine whether or not a teacher is doing her job properly, but short, infrequent standardized tests assessing students are enough to assess whether or not a teacher is doing her job properly?

Hey, Arne? Bizarro World is calling. Either you return their alternate universe, or you start paying royalties.

They are the primary indicator, from my experience.

* Parents who don't care have students who don't care.
* Parents who have no respect for teachers have children with no respect for teachers.
* Parents who look down on people who earn crappy wages, have students who look down on teachers who earn crappy wages.
* Parents who think their kids can do no wrong have kids who think they can do whatever they want in the classroom.
* Parents who don't insist their kids do their homework and prepare for tests have kids who don't do their homework and prepare for tests.
* Parent who won't allow their children to earn grades below a B, have kids who earn only As and Bs.
* Parents who allow their kids to bring home Cs, Ds, and Fs have kids who bring home Cs, Ds, and Fs.
* Parents who lie and cheat their way through life had kids who lie and cheat on tests.
* Parents who don't sent their kids to school with adequate sleep and nutrition have kidss who sleep in class and have sugar/caffeine related behavior issues.

And they send their kids to me to fix and for this I am evaluated. One of my colleagues and I started writing a set of expectations for parents as well as for students. One of the admins told us not to do it because of bad PR. The parents are allowed to tell us how to do our jobs but God forbid if we suggest they need to do theirs because that's calling them a bad parent.

Until parents are recognized as being essential in the success or failure of their children, we will not be able to fix public education. Most of my parents are supportive. It's that 20% or so who consume so much of my time in terms of behavior and adacemic issues.